Poem for Monday

The Movement of a Caravan over the Landscape
By Sarah Manguso

That we rode harder into the wind,
That the story got told,
That the broken candies were eaten first,
That they were eaten last,
That all subjects grew extinct eventually,
That in the inn I ruined our lives,
That in the barn I tried to save them,
That I failed,
That per Fitzgerald the manner remains intact for some time after the morale cracks,
That in the interregna all suffer equally,
That the languages we are born ready to speak leave us one by one,
That unless we’re actively procreating we’re acting metaphorically,
That I’ve never been to France,
That I’ve been to Ohio,
That I remember almost nothing I did there,
That it is meaningless to say I liked that,
That emotions accumulate into a few categories,
That each new one is itself plus everything like itself,
That when animals act like people we love them more,
That when they do we want them never to stop,
That we give them the names we wish we had,
That men have children and manufacture new mothers,
That I anticipate escaping my fate or not,
That I anticipate the future by never buying groceries,
That I know the flesh is incidental but keep so many photographs,
That the story gets told,
That it was the reason for these various movements.

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Sorry I've been AWOL and this will be brief, but I was happily busy nearly all day. I celebrated Yule with and , a small circle but a really nice one as I adore both these women (and there were cats, which always improves any holiday gathering, even when they are trying to find a way to steal the food). After our ritual, we watched two of the SGA episodes that have aired in Canada but not here -- the sequel to the fall finale and "The Tao of Rodney" which is surely one of the best episodes of any SF series in years -- and ate cheese, shrimp, chocolate yule log and other wonderful stuff, so it was a very relaxing, peaceful, lovely afternoon!


's cats Sadie and Cleo under the tree. Cleo is sitting on my Book of Shadows, such as it is, so I feel very blessed.


's tree is multi-fandom. She has Highlander ornaments, Disney ornaments, superhero ornaments and Harry and Hedwig!


I have both Kirk and Spock languishing in boxes. Some day I suppose I should put up a tree in the middle of July when no one could possible assume it was a Christmas tree and display all my Star Trek ornaments.

My parents came over in the evening for fondue for Chanukah -- the tradition is to eat foods cooked in oil to commemorate the miracle of the oil lasting eight days -- so the eating didn't stop there, either. stayed home with older son cutting up and breading cheese cubes and pieces of chicken while I was at Yule and younger son was at a Chanukah party at a climbing gym with his Hebrew school class -- a big hit, apparently. By the time I arrived home, parents were down the basement playing on the Wii with the boys! We had donuts (another traditional Chanukah food) and lit the menorah with them. Then we watched The Simpsons holiday special and I spent quite a while burning and ripping music from iTunes so younger son could load and play the songs on his MP3 player. (He also got clothes, including a winter coat which he desperately needs and actually asked for because he hates inheriting coats -- older son has a habit of chewing on the insides of hoods -- but who can get excited about that as a present!)

GMR has finally published my review of The Prestige, though those of you who followed my conversations in comments here with and have probably already read the gist of it. I forgot to mention yesterday that before seeing Eragon, we got a preview for Epic Movie -- looks equally derivative but in this case deliberately so, and what parodies made it into the trailer were absolutely hilarious! I want to see that film. Oh, and I see that I am Time's Person of the Year -- go me!

And if you are wondering where your holiday card from me is, with any luck it will be in the mail on Monday!